Friday, January 2, 2009

Hockey in the Hood.

For those who don't know, I live a few blocks east of Wrigley Field. Today (New Years) was the outdoor hockey game at Wrigley between the Blackhawks and Red Wings. Detroit won.

I didn't go, but here is what it was like around here today.

The jets flying overhead sounded like thunder. Really loud thunder. I didn't have the TV on then so I didn't realize it had been jets until someone mentioned it later. We're used to that from the annual air show.

The hovering blimp is a constant, low hum. That too is familiar, from baseball season. I couldn't hear it at my old place but they seem to spend a lot of time hovering directly above my building here.

Overall, it was just like during a Cubs game, except in January. I live right on one of the major East-West streets, so it's easy to tell when something is going on at Wrigley from the bumper-to-bumper traffic.

One interesting thing is that the stadium lights were on most nights for the last week or so, as they prepared.

I could have skated on the rink if I had wanted to, had skates, and had been on ice skates at any time in the last 35 years (I ice skated a little as a kid). They give perks like that to we neighbors to keep us from complaining about the inevitable disruption caused by 40,000 people coming into our neighborhood.

I didn't go over by the Wrigleyville bar strip last night, nor tonight, but I'm sure it's hopping still.

I was reminded of the Police concert there in the summer of 2007, although then they had seating on the field, which they did not appear to have today.